“The Fourth Estate has become the Fifth Column.” That’s what Savage said.
““The Fourth Estate has become the Fifth Column.” That’s what Savage said.”
The term Fifth Column goes back to the time of the Roman Legion. The standard marching formation for the legion was in columns of four. Whenever the formation would get screwed up or out of sync due to no obvious reason, the common logic was that there was an invisible “fifth column” stirring among the ranks causing mischief. Probably the reason this term has dropped from our lexicon is because not many americans know what a column is as applied to a military term much less a fifth column. So, there you have it.... :)